City harvest: Couple's large Stuart neighborhood garden yields bounty

Gazette / Mark BugnaskiLin and Bernie Foulk, musicians in Kalamazoo, harvest beets from their half-acre back yard garden in the Stuart Neighborhood. The couple has transformed the back yard behind their Victorian house into a seasonal source of food.

KALAMAZOO — Ted Gruizenga remembers when his neighbors’ backyard used to be a parking lot.

Now, he’s amazed by what he sees.

A few blocks from downtown Kalamazoo — where older Victorian homes sit on compact yards — Lin and Bernie Foulk have converted their half-acre property into a massive garden.

Amid the bustle of city life, the Foulks grow everything from blueberries and okra to cucumbers and collard greens in their serene garden.

This summer, they harvested 85 pounds of onions and 75 pounds of potatoes.

“Nobody has anything of this magnitude” in the neighborhood, Gruizenga said. “It’s wonderful.”

The Foulks are an example of a rising trend as more people become passionate about gardening in Kalamazoo.

“(Gardens) are popping up in all sizes and forms and locations, said Shelly Claflin, who coordinates community gardens in Kalamazoo’s Oakwood and Vine neighborhoods. “I see that shift happening.”

The Foulks moved into the century-old red brick Victorian house — built by one of the early Kalamazoo mayors, William E. Hill — three years ago because of the large backyard, which they envisioned as a perfect place to garden.

The garden is hidden behind a wooden fence.

“Most people don’t know this is here,” said Lin Foulk, 34, who teaches French horn at Western Michigan University.

Gazette / Mark BugnaskiThe couple stroll through their half-acre garden in the Stuart neighborhood, a few blocks from downtown Kalamazoo.

There is a sense of peacefulness among the vegetable plants and fruit trees and the mulch paths.

“Look at these beets,” she said, kneeling down to examine the plants. “These are the best beets we’ve ever grown.”

For the Foulks, who don’t own a television, it’s about living a simple life.

Other than buying milk and eggs from the grocery store, the Foulks eat nearly everything else from their garden, making soups and canning and freezing produce to last the winter.

Home-grown food just tastes better than store-bought food, said Bernie Foulk, 36, an organist at the First United Methodist Church of Kalamazoo.

But it’s more than that.

The couple, who are both vegetarian, feel a special connection to growing their own food — the ripe purple eggplant, sweet potatoes, baby spinach and walnuts falling off the tree.

“It’s like a quality of life,” Lin Foulk said. “What you’re eating is who you are.”

Boom in gardensThe Foulks, who are self-taught gardeners, aren’t the only ones with green thumbs in Kalamazoo.

While it’s hard to track the number of private gardens, Claflin said she has heard back from more people growing their own food at home.

Some people like the camaraderie of gardening in public neighborhood gardens. Others do it because spending a few dollars on seeds is cheaper than buying groceries.

Claflin said she expects urban gardens to continue rising in popularity because of several new programs run by the Kalamazoo County Land Bank Authority, which manages tax-foreclosed properties.

Starting this fall, local groups from neighborhoods, churches and businesses can get free vacant properties to plant public gardens in six Kalamazoo city neighborhoods.

Another new authority program starting this year is the Parkway Planting Program, which will provide free plants, garden planning and additional labor if 75 percent of residents on a given block agree to maintain a garden in the parkway.

For more information on the authority’s new programs, contact Catie Parker at 269-385-8546.